Battle of Zboriv (1649)

The Battle of Zboriv (Ukrainian: Битва під Зборовом, Зборівська битва, Polish: Bitwa pod Zborowem, Zborowska bitwa; 15–16 August 1649). Was a battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day village of Mlynivtsi on the Strypa River in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and İslâm III Giray attacked and defeated the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of King John II Casimir.

Not to be confused with Battle of Zboriv (1917).
Battle of Zboriv
Part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising

Battle of Zboriv. Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine, 1780
Date15–16 August 1649
Location
Zboriv, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine
Result Tactical Cossack-Tatar victory, Creation of the Cossack Hetmanate, Treaty of Zboriv
Belligerents
border=no Cossack Hetmanate
Crimean Khanate		 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders and leaders
border=no Bohdan Khmelnytsky
İslâm III Giray		 John II Casimir
Strength
border=no 30,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks[1]
10,000–20,000 Crimean Tatars[1]		 35,000–40,000 Polish cavalry and infantry[2]
Casualties and losses
Light 7,000 killed and wounded[2]
Battle of Zboriv. Juliusz Kossak, 1897

King John II Casimir Vasa and the main Polish army left Warsaw on 23 June and had made it to Toporiv in the final days of July when Mikolaj Skrzetuski (called Jan Skrzetuski in Henryk Sienkiewicz's With fire and Sword) informed the king of the desperate situation at Zbarazh.[3]: 575–576  The king made it to within a half-mile of Zboriv on 13 August.[3]: 578 

Battle

On 9 August 1649, Bohdan Khmelnytsky had redeployed his main forces from Zbarazh to Staryi Zbarazh to the west, where the terrain hid them from the Poles, and he used deception to prevent the besieged from noticing.[3]: 578  The Horde, followed by the Zaporozhian Host, advanced toward the royal camp during the night of 15 August.[3]: 578 

The Crown forces were surprised during the rainy and foggy day while they crossed the Strypa River.[3]: 578  The Horde split into two parts and attacked from the front and the back, but the king rallied his army to repel the attack and the Crimean Tatars retreated by nightfall.[3]: 578 

The night brought a council of war on the Polish side and two letters from the king, one for the Khan İslâm III Giray and one for Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky.[3]: 579  The letter to the khan "reminded the khan of the favor that he had enjoyed from the Poles in his youth, while sojourning as a captive, invited the khan to a renewal of their old friendship, receiving money for past, present, and future years."[3]: 579  The letter to Khmelnytsky commanded him to "abandon all hostile actions and retreat ten miles from our army, and send us your envoys - what you desire from us and from the Commonwealth."[3]: 580 

The next day brought more attacks from the Cossacks and the Tatars on two fronts, but then, a letter from the Khan İslâm III Giray and Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky arrived.[3]: 581  The khan was prepared to negotiate if there was "satisfaction of the Cossacks, payment of the suspended tribute, a substantial consideration, above the tribute, as well as permission for the Horde to take captives on its way back."[3]: 581 

Aftermath

On 18 August 1649, the Treaty of Zboriv was agreed upon by Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Lord Commissioners Jerzy Ossolinski, Lord Crown Chancellor, Kazimierz Lew Sapieha, Lord Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Krzysztof Koniecpolski, Lord Palatine of Belz, Stanislaw Witowski, Lord of Sandomierz, and Adam Kysil, Lord Palatine of Kyiv.[3]: 589  "It was drafted not in the form of a treaty, but as a unilateral royal manifesto, at the request and intervention of the Crimean Khan."[3]: 593 

References
  1. Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Valeriy Stepankov, “Battle of Zboriv 1649, Encyclopedia of the history of Ukraine”. 2005.
  2. Jan Białobłocki, “Klar Męstwa”. September 1649.
  3. Hrushevsky, M., 2002, History of Ukraine-Rus, Volume Eight, The Cossack Age, 1626-1650, Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, ISBN 1895571324
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